Incoming NBT regional president focused on driving growth in Rochester market

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A longtime local banking executive will oversee NBT Bank’s Rochester region when its $236 million pending merger with Evans Bank is completed this year.

Tim Brown, who currently serves as Evans’ regional director, has been named Rochester Regional president for NBT.

Brown, who has more than 45 years of banking experience, joined Evans in 2023 in the role that develops and executes strategic growth and community presence in the Rochester market. That focus will continue in his new role with NBT.

Over the past 13 months since he has been at the helm, Brown said Evans has expanded its local presence in the commercial banking sector.

“Rochester has been my focus at Evans from day one and I haven’t switched from that,” Brown said, adding he is looking forward to continuing to drive growth in the Rochester region with NBT. “This is an incredible opportunity and the future is bright.”

Prior to Evans, Brown spent 13 years at KeyBank, most recently serving as senior vice president managing the business banking commercial lending department for the Western New York region.

Brown earned his bachelor’s degree from SUNY Empire State College. He is also active in the Rochester area, serving on the boards of the Monroe County Industrial Development Corp. and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Rochester.

Additionally, two more Evans executives will take leadership roles at NBT. Ken Pawlak has been named president of the Western Region of New York and Buffalo Regional president, and Audrey Meyers will be the senior territory manager for Retail Banking in the Buffalo and Rochester markets.

Scott Kingsley, NBT CEO, told the RBJ that this was the direction he was hoping for when the pending merger was first announced, adding that he is even more bullish on the deal since getting to know the Evans team.

“The team at NBT Bank is excited to select Ken Pawlak, Tim Brown and Audrey Meyers for these key leadership roles,” Kingsley said. “All have extensive banking experience and knowledge of Evans customers and employees and the communities they will continue to serve that will position them to successfully lead our efforts and build on the strong foundation established by Evans Bank.”

Brown sees additional opportunities in the Rochester region on the commercial banking side, particularly in sectors such as manufacturing.

Kingsley agreed, adding that NBT sees opportunities working with “strong, growing, operating companies that are making or distributing products.”

He and Brown said NBT’s technological abilities, coupled with its range of services – including wealth management and insurance – provide a comprehensive package to customers.

Norwich, Chenango County-based NBT and Williamson, Erie County-based Evans announced plans last September for the merger.

In December, NBT announced that it received regulatory clearance from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to move forward with the merger and a waiver from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for any application with respect to the merger.

Under the deal — which is expected to close in the second quarter — Evans will be rebranded as NBT.

Once complete, the bank will have combined assets of roughly $16 billion, with the Buffalo/Rochester market that was acquired from Evans becoming the largest MSA in NBT’s geographic footprint.

The combined organization will have the highest deposit market share in upstate New York for any bank with under $100 billion in assets and will result in a network of over 170 locations from Buffalo to Portland, Maine.

Bank leaders said the merger will extend NBT’s growing footprint into Western New York.

Kingsley said while NBT has no bank operations in Rochester, it does own Epic Retirement Services on State Street in Rochester.

While Evans Bank has had commercial clients in the Rochester region for more than a decade, it created a physical presence here in 2020 with the roughly $35 million acquisition of Fairport Savings Bank.

Evans now has four locations in Monroe County: Fairport, Irondequoit, Penfield and Perinton and has 38 local employees.

Kingsley not only sees the current Evans branches remaining open, but he said there are opportunities to add additional branches in Monroe County and the surrounding area that could provide retail and commercial banking options. Possible sites for NBT branches could be in Brighton, Greece and Victor, he said.

“It’s an important piece of branding,” he said of bank branches.

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